


Operation Alexandra

by Obsessive_Fangirl



Series: OQPromptParty [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Bulletproof Love verse, F/M, slight mention of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-06 05:34:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14050011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Obsessive_Fangirl/pseuds/Obsessive_Fangirl
Summary: For OQPrompt Party, prompt 118: OQ steal a baby (intentionally, unintentionally, whatever.)Set in Bulletproof Love verse, somewhere in the future, but before they start sleeping together.





	Operation Alexandra

**********__**__A fact about handcuffs; the more expensive the pair, the more difficult they were to pick - and whoever bought the handcuffs currently on Robin’s wrists had spent a lot of money on them.  
“Have you still not got out of them yet?” Regina asked from across the room, only slight judgement in her tone.  
Robin glared. “I could probably get out a lot quicker if I had a little help.”  
“Find someone who cares then,” she sassed, but the smirk on her face removed some of the malice.  
“Ouch,” Robin scoffed. “No honour amongst thieves.”  
“We’re assassins, not thieves,” she commented. “And if you continue distracting me I’ll never find the file we’re looking for.”  
“To steal,” Robin pointed out. “So we’re assassin thieves. Or thieving assassins. Thessassins.”  
Regina rolled her eyes. “Are you quite done?”  
“I’m bored,” Robin whined, getting frustrated at the fact that these handcuffs may have bested him. “Can you come and help me?”  
“For every second that I’m not going through these files, the chances of us finding Alexandra’s parents gets slimmer.”  
Right. Alexandra. The reason they were in this mess in the first place.  
They had stolen a baby.  
Well not stolen, not really. Technically the baby wasn’t theirs, sure, but she didn’t belong to the people who had been keeping her either. She’d been abducted from her family, held for ransom, and Robin and Regina had stumbled across the whole thing completely by accident.  
They had gone after drug dealers, not kidnappers. And it was only after they had stormed the building and dealt with the smuggling ring, that they’d heard the sound of a baby crying. They’d found her lying on a small cot, wailing at the top of her lungs, and they’d had no choice but to take her with them. They couldn’t leave her there, they couldn’t call in and say they found a baby after committing mass murder, they couldn’t just drop off a child at a centre as it would raise too many questions... They had to take care of her themselves.  
Her parents were out there somewhere, all they had to do was find them.  
Only, locating a baby’s parents when said baby couldn’t talk beyond the gibberish rambling and cooing, was no mean feat. They had an initial and last name on the baby’s clothing, and the only chance they had at doing something with that was hoping that the smuggling ring must have researched what they were doing before they did it - how else were they supposed to know which families had the money they were after? And so back into the lion’s den they went: the smugglers’ ‘base’ where they stored funds, counted cash, and kept records. They were hoping to be in and out before anyone even noticed.  
It hadn’t worked out like that; that would have been too easy.  
They’d been caught, obviously - hence the quality handcuffs on Robin’s wrists - but they’d also fought back, and somehow wiped out another batch of smugglers without alerting the entire building to their presence.  
They only had limited time though; it was merely a matter of minutes before someone found the pile of bodies and called for a search of the building. And there was no way they could outlive all of them. They were damn good, but they weren’t magicians.  
And so that was why Regina was still ignoring Robin’s requests for assistance in getting out of his handcuffs; they needed all the time they could get to find the parents of the baby they stole.  
“You know, we’d probably find the file a lot faster with two sets of hands,” Robin hinted, still trying to work the lock with a pin.  
“Better work quicker then,” she retorted, and Robin couldn’t help the frustrated growl in his throat.  
“For god’s sake, can’t you just-”  
“Found it!”  
Robin watched as she pulled out a plastic wallet, a sticker to the front of A. Boyd; both the initial and the last name matching what had been written on the baby’s clothing labels.  
“Great, now can you try and help me get out of these?”  
Regina rolled her eyes, walked over and finally, _finally_ , took the pin he had been trying to escape with.  
In a matter of seconds he heard a click, and after a few more he felt the cuffs loosen on his skin. She pulled them off with a smirk on her lips, obviously trying to hide her amusement.  
“I loosened them for you,” Robin mumbled, rubbing at the sore skin where the metal had dug into him.  
“Sure you did.” It was obvious she didn’t believe him, and the chuckle she was trying to hold in escaped as she turned toward the door. “Come on, let’s head back to Alexandra.”  
…  
They were just getting in Regina’s car when all hell broke loose; alarms resounding from within the building, warning lights flashing from outside, a cacophony of shouting floating through the open windows.  
“Seems like we got out just in time,” Robin mused.  
Regina didn’t comment, putting her Mercedes into drive and speeding away.  
They reached Robin’s house in under an hour, and both of them were only slightly concerned about the state it would be in since John had been taking care of the baby. To say he didn’t have a paternal bone in his body would be an understatement; when they had handed Alexandra over to him with the promise of ‘we’ll only be a few hours’, John had held the baby away from him with outstretched arms and enquired ‘what the hell am I supposed to do with it?’.  
So yes, they were hoping they came back to a house with the same number of occupants as when they left it. But it wasn’t a guarantee.  
The moment they got out the car, Robin’s neighbour exited their home, coming down the path with a worried expression on her face. “Is there a baby in your house?” She asked. “Because I’ve heard nothing except a baby crying for the past three hours and I tried to knock on the door but nobody answered even though when I peeked through the window I could see John…”  
Robin rolled his eyes. “Mary Margaret, breathe.”  
He waited whilst the brunette in front of him deeply inhaled and then let the breath go. “Better?”  
When she nodded, Robin explained; “We’re babysitting, that’s all.”  
“Oh, well I suggest you get back to them, they don’t sound very happy.”  
“Being stuck with John for a few hours, I can relate,” Regina quipped, before starting to walk up to Robin’s door.  
“I could help?” Mary Margaret offered, _bless her._  
But whilst the thought of letting a new mother take care of his baby too was a good idea in theory, the questions she’s no doubt ask had him refusing: “Thank you, but we’re good.”  
She narrowed her eyes at him, obviously still somewhat dubious. “Are you sure?”  
“I better go,” Robin commented, gesturing towards his house. “There’s nothing to worry about, honestly.”  
He barely heard Mary Margaret’s skeptical ‘if you say so’, too busy fishing out his key from his pocket as he made his way where Regina was waiting on his porch.  
True to Mary Margaret’s word; the moment the door opened they were greeted with the unmistakable wail of a small baby.  
“John, what’s going on?” Robin shouted - though he doubted his friend could hear him over the racket anyway.  
Both of them entered the front room, finding John sat at a table with his head in his hands, and Alexandra lying on a blanket in the middle of the floor.  
“She won’t stop crying!” He groaned. “I’ve fed her, changed her, I’ve even sang to her...”  
Regina scoffed. “No wonder she’s crying.”  
“Hey!”  
“Have you held her?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest.  
John looked at her with a frown on his face. “What?”  
Regina rolled her eyes, repeating herself but slower: “Have you held her?”  
“Why would I do that? Then she’ll just deafen me, and I’ll get even more frustrated.” John ran his hands through her hair, letting out a large exhale as he admitted; “I’m already trying my hardest to not to lose it and shout at her.”  
“It’s not her fault,” Regina sighed, walking over to where Alexandra was lying on the green, fleece blanket John had dug out of a cupboard somewhere. She bent and scooped her up, holding her against her shoulder as she slowly swayed. “She can’t exactly tell you what she wants. I’m sure she’s just as frustrated as you are.”  
“Well she needs to learn how to talk faster then,” John grumbled.  
Robin watched as Regina ran a soothing hand over Alexandra’s back, lowering her head to mutter in the baby’s ear, and sure enough, after a few moments, the crying subsided, and the room was quiet except for a few random sniffles and gurgles.  
“How did you do that?” John asked, unable to keep the wonder out of his voice. “Are you magic?”  
Regina rolled her eyes. “Sometimes they just want to be held, John.”  
Both John and Robin stared for a little while, revelling in the temporary serenity, before realising that they needed to get to work.  
“Regina, where did you leave the file?” Robin asked, looking around the room for the plastic wallet they’d brought back.  
“It’s on the coffee table,” Regina answered, nodding to her left before refocusing her attention on the child in her arms  
After grabbing the file, Robin pulled out a chair to sit at the dining table with John, swivelling himself so he could reach for the laptop behind him.  
“What if her parents had something to do with her kidnapping?” John asked, leaning over to browse the papers too.  
“Then we’ll work out another family to give her to.”  
A few moments of checking her parents’ background passed before Regina came and sat down next to them, confident in the fact that Alexandra was now quiet and content.  
“Do they seem alright?” She asked, suspiciously gazing at the photo of the couple Robin had in his hands.  
He had to admit they looked rather young, probably not quite ready for a child yet, but certainly happy in their relationship if their grins were anything to go by.  
Robin nodded his head. “Nothing’s raised a red flag yet.”  
“Have you checked their financials? Family history? The area-?”  
“Regina, I get that you’re wanting to ensure she goes to a good home,” Robin interrupted. “But they’re clean. There’s nothing to suggest they’re anything less than a caring family.”  
“Are you sure?”  
“I’ll check more in depth for their online presence and family background,” he promised. “But as it stands, I’d feel comfortable handing her over to them.”  
“Okay…”  
John stood up and stretched. “It seems like you two have everything in hand here, I’m gonna go and get myself a drink - or two.”  
Both Robin and Regina nodded, not really paying much attention to him.  
Though if he’s being honest, Robin spent more time glancing over at Regina than researching, marvelling at the ease in which Regina handled a child. The way she drew patterns over Alexandra’s baby suit, bounced her knees and pulled some faces for a smile, responded back to gurgling as if part of an actual conversation… It all pushed Robin towards one conclusion; she had done this before. He knew a child was involved in her life somewhere - the cute, little drawing she kept in her bag proved as much - but seeing this side of her, a deeply maternal side, Robin wondered if perhaps there was more to it than what she’d told him.  
He could understand if she was keeping a child secret; not only would they be a liability, they’d also be a target. He knew Regina would keep them safe, would probably lay down her life for them, but he also knew the danger that followed her around. He couldn’t remember having to run or fight for his life as often as he had since he met her. She certainly kept him on his toes, had added something to his life that he didn’t really realise he wanted. He’s sure she’d do the same for a child.  
Motherhood would suit her.  
Maybe in another life she’d raise a child in a normal life. Pack their lunches before sending them off to school, buy them games and let them eat pizza and cupcakes…  
“You’d make a good mother.”  
He didn’t realise he had said it aloud until Regina turned to him, a mask in place that prevented him from reading her reaction.  
Though after a moment, her voice was even and measured as she stated: “that’s not in the cards for me.”  
“Not now, obviously, this life is no place for a child,” Robin assured her. “But one day, I could see you being a mom.”  
“Robin…”  
“You’d be one of those moms who pretends to be all stern and strict, but you’d be a total pushover,” he mused. “They could have anything they wanted and they’d know it.”  
“Can you just-”  
“And if they ever got in trouble they would come to you and you’d fix it.” He paused for a second to chuckle before adding; “and he wouldn’t be bullied because everyone would be afraid of you.”  
“Robin...”  
“And I bet you’d go through pregnancy being one of those who have really weird cravings.”  
“Robin! _Stop_.”  
Her tone of voice snapped him out of his daze, and when he looked over to Regina to see a pained expression on her face and watery eyes, he knew he had overstepped. “Regina, I-”  
She didn’t let him get past that; instead she held out a hand to stop him talking before standing from her chair.  
He watched as Regina put Alexandra back down on the green blanket, then walked back through the dining room to reach the back door.  
It slammed behind her, startling Alexandra from where she was peaceful and quiet, and Robin knew that despite his desire to go and talk to Regina - apologise to her - he needed to soothe the baby first.  
Though, in all honesty, he barely knew where to start. Did he hold her as Regina had done? What did he do to calm her down? Should he talk to her? Sing to her? Just sway her? What if he swayed her too hard and made her ill?  
The realisation hit him that he didn’t know how to look after a baby - even though he was technically a father.  
Though was he? _Really_? He had only had the chance to spend a couple days with his son whilst he and Marian were still in hospital, and he hadn’t proved himself to be a capable dad by any means, had he? His son was still missing.  
Maybe… Maybe fatherhood just wasn’t meant for him after all. Maybe his soul was too unclean to know the love of a child. He had killed, wounded, maimed… He’d swam in the darkest of waters, using ‘finding his son’ as his justification.  
Marian wouldn’t have wanted this. Roland deserved better than this. Than him.  
“Robin, mate, you alright?” John asked from the doorway, entering the room to find Robin just stood and staring at a crying baby.  
“Uh… I-” Robin stammered. “I need a minute.”  
Without another word, Robin left, leaving John to sigh and make his way over to Alexandra.  
“Here we go again…”  
…  
There weren’t many places Robin felt comfortable letting go, usually it was somewhere quiet and solitary, but this time, he found his feet taking him to his back garden, to Regina.  
He ended up standing next to her, leaning against the fence surrounding his wooden decking, taking deep breaths and staring straight ahead.  
Regina must have assumed he had come out to talk to her - which was understandable; a few moments ago he was intending on doing just that - and within seconds she had delivered a stern; “I don’t want to talk.”  
“Okay.” Fine by him. He wasn’t in a talking mood either.  
Out of the corner of his eye he saw her turn to face him, her gaze searching him and obviously finding something that concerned her.  
“Are you okay?” She asked, her soft voice a huge change from the usual tone.  
He was almost tempted to tell her everything, to tell her about his son, and his wife, and how he’d lost them both, and his crazy conspiracy theory that he had so _desperately_ believed - so much so that he had delved into the worst part of humanity just to prove it.  
But he couldn’t.  
He couldn’t tell her; if she knew everything about him she would likely run for the hills. Or shoot him.  
He wouldn’t tell her. “I’m fine.”  
She didn’t believe him of course; even an idiot could see that he wasn’t fine. “Robin…”  
“I’m not pushing you to speak, Regina,” he interrupted. “I expect the same courtesy.”  
Realising that challenging him wouldn’t end well for her, Regina conceded. “Okay.”  
He expected her to go back inside, to avoid him. After all, he was the reason she had needed space in the first place.  
But she didn’t: she stayed. And after a few moments of Robin spiralling back down into the recesses of his own mind, he felt her tentatively rest a hand over his.  
It was only a small gesture, nothing that should have released the floodgates, but their usual brand of comfort was banter, sparring, or arguing, something to channel their anger and hurt. This, in comparison, was surprisingly gentle, caring, somehow intimate… And the knowledge that Regina cared about him enough to want to help just added to the emotions piled so high they were almost overflowing.  
He spread his fingers until hers fell between and he could grasp them, letting the warmth flow through him and soothe his whirring mind.  
From beside him he heard Regina take in a deep breath, holding it for a moment before she slowly let it back out.  
It seemed they were both needing a source of comfort right now.  
For a long few moments, they let themselves get immersed in the outdoors, watching as the trees lining Robin’s garden gently swayed in the breeze, as birds hopped over the lawn trying to find their next meal, as clouds drifted in the sky playing a slow game of peek-a-boo with the sun… and slowly but surely, they let themselves crawl back out of their darkness.  
The sound of Alexandra’s cries filtered through the air, and John’s pleading ‘ _oh god just please be quiet_ ’ had them both smirking despite themselves.  
“Do you think we should go and rescue John now?” Robin asked, reluctant to give up the soothing company Regina had become, but knowing that his friend most certainly needed help.  
The woman next to him looked back towards his house, looking just as reluctant to head back in as he did, compromising; “one more minute?”  
Robin nodded, turning back to marvel at nature whilst holding Regina’s hand in his.  
“One more minute.”  
…  
Once Regina had calmed Alexandra down again, and they’d all gone back to researching her parents, and the only conclusion they had come to was that Ashley Boyd and Sean Herman were good people. There was nothing to suggest they wouldn’t take care of their child; they were stable, caring individuals with nothing to hint at them being susceptible to corruption.  
Alexandra belonged with them.  
Though the realisation was one that weighed on them; they had done what they had set out to do. And they knew what this meant.  
Regina stood, making her way over to where Alexandra was laying down, legs kicking in the air as she gnawed on her fingers.  
“Right then, baby,” she started, picking her up and raising her to eye level. “Let’s get you back home.”  
…  
The drive to the apartment listed for Ashley and Sean was rather uneventful, as if Alexandra knew the grownups were in no mood to deal with any crying or diaper changing.  
In Robin’s point of view, they arrived far too soon. Without wanting to admit it, he had grown used to Alexandra being around, and after a while he’d quite enjoyed the novelty of having a child to look after. Of course, she had reopened old wounds that still hadn’t healed, but it had been a good dose of something he didn’t know he needed. It had made things worse, yes, but he also felt like it was going to make things better. In time.  
A testament to how much he’d changed over the course of Alexandra’s stay, he was the one who took her out of the car; since they had found her, he had avoided holding her too much, had passed her to Regina or John whenever he could. But now he was carrying a baby in his arms up the flight of stairs to reunite her with her parents, bouncing her slightly and smiling at the cute gibberish she spouted.  
He paused when they reached the door of the apartment, letting Regina press the doorbell, and then waiting with baited breath.  
The door opened, revealing two very distraught looking parents. At least, until they saw the baby in Robin’s arms.  
“Alexandra!”  
“Oh my god, is it really her?”  
Robin smiled, letting Alexandra’s mother take back her baby, watching as the two engulfed each other in hugs whilst being mindful of their child held between them.  
The happiness radiating from all of them had Robin’s heart feeling a little lighter. Finally, proof that being in this low place, swimming in dark waters, could bring something good to the world. He didn’t get this opportunity whilst at work; everything was so meticulously planned that the chance of accidentally coming across a baby was practically non-existent. But with Regina, he didn’t know what was coming next, and this was proof that her being in dark waters too also helped bring a happy ending into someone’s life. She would have done this anyway - rescued a child and returned them to their parents - Robin is just glad that he was by her side when it happened.  
And if some of her operations had this outcome, he found himself wanting to spend even more time by her side.  
He looked over to her, not exactly willing to tell her everything he’d just internally rambled about, but still wanting to let her know that he was glad he’d shared this with her.  
Though when his eyes landed on her face his heart dropped a little. He knew this wouldn’t be a painless moment for her; it was no secret she had become rather fond of the child, she had spent more time with her than both Robin and John combined. But he wasn’t prepared to see the tears in her eyes, and the morose curve of her lips.  
Reaching out, he linked his fingers with hers, drawing her attention to him as she met his gaze.  
Leaning closer toward her, he lowered his voice. “We did good, Regina.”  
She nodded, her voice full of emotion as she rasped; “Yeah.”  
“Let’s head back?”  
She let him lead her away, still grasping his fingers as they made their way down the corridor, but then from behind them they heard a hurried; “wait!”  
When they turned back, both Alexandra’s mother and father were jogging towards them.  
“Who are you?”  
“We were never here,” Regina answered, and that’s understandable, really; if word got out that it was them who gave the baby back to their parents, that would be yet another group with a reason to target them - and no doubt put Alexandra back into the line of fire. “Got that?”  
They both understood the seriousness of her statement, but they still asked; “How can we repay you?”  
“Just…” Regina started, and for a moment, Robin thought there was something she’d seen in their files that she wanted. He hadn’t thought Regina would use this as a method of gains, but he knew that acquiring things wasn’t easy for her; he understood her taking advantage of the situation. Though, he stood corrected when all Regina asked of them was: “Take care of Alexandra.”  
He couldn’t help but smile at the women he used to think of as a scary assassin having such a mushy heart inside.  
“We will,” both Ashley and Sean vowed. “Thank you.”  
…  
The car ride back was silent, painfully so.  
Both Robin and Regina had been used to gurgles or cries for the past half day, and now there was no noise except their own breathing. The silence was so loud that Regina reached for the radio, turning it down until it was just background noise, but still enough that the loss of Alexandra’s presence wasn’t too noticeable.  
“You’d make a good father too, you know?”  
For a moment, Robin’s world stopped.  
He never thought he’d hear anything like that again, and certainly not from someone who didn’t even know about his son. She couldn’t know that - and yet she’d said it with such certainty that he wanted to believe her. “You think?”  
“Yeah.” When Robin looked over to where Regina was in the passenger seat, he saw a slight smile on her face. And just like he got lost in the thought of her as a parent earlier, she gave him a list of things she could see him doing; “you’d teach them how to be all outdoorsy, and you’d make up bedtime stories and do all the voices, and if you think _I’d_ spoil a child? You would treat them like royalty.”  
The words meant more than he could say. All those days when he’d imagine what type of dad he’d be, what kind of activities he’d do, and Regina had just reeled off the same thoughts as he’d had.  
It was affirming. “Thank you.”  
He looked over at her again, and when her eyes met his, he gave her a smile filled with all the emotions he was feeling. It may have been too much; he noted a slight guard being put back up, as if the open honesty Alexandra had brought out in her was being withdrawn now that they’d handed her back over.  
He didn’t want her withdrawing; he’d rather liked getting to know this version of Regina Mills.  
“Hey…” He reached over, grasping her hand where it lay on her knee. “You okay?”  
He was slightly relieved when she didn’t withdraw from his touch too, nodding and offering him a slight smile.  
“I’m okay,” she answered, taking a deep breath before facing forward again. “Let’s go home.”

 


End file.
